Came these words from a subscriber last month:

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“,I keep giving up. When I pick up a book I want to read, say a volume of Vergil, or some passage of history by Tacitus, I find my limited vocabulary is a big barrier and constantly looking up words in a dictionary, or even a translation, is time consuming, frustrating and off- putting. My memory has never been great and the habit of stopping and starting reading (- there have sometimes been years between reading different passages) adds to the problem.”

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This is pretty common.

Sadly.

Because of the lies of the ‘grammar and translation’ nonsense, probably close to 99% of Latin students never reach the stage where they can actually read a passage from Vergil or Tacitus.

Or Caesar, Seneca, Plautus, or any other great literary figure of the Roman language, for that matter…

And the worst part is that feeling of ‘giving up’ that we get every time.

I know – because I’ve felt it myself, more than once.

You have this moment of enthusiasm, where you realise that if you just stick with it long enough, push through the struggle – you’ll eventually stop needing that dictionary.

So you pick up Vergil, Tacitus, or whichever author you favour, and get started.

In 5 minutes or less, you’re stuck.

And the enormity of the task ahead of you looms large…

And so you stop.

And you FEEL like you’re giving up.

Maybe you feel like you have no discipline, or like you’re a failure.

But neither is the case.

The problem isn’t your work ethic – it’s the method.

Learning should NEVER be a struggle.

I mean never.

That may fly in the face of everything we’ve been led to believe by society, the school system, whatever.

If it does – so much the better.

The majority of people think that ‘hard work’ is the key to learning.

The majority of people also fail every time they try to learn a language.

So why would you listen to the majority of people about how to learn a language?

So I repeat – learning should not be a struggle.

Not EVER.

The only ‘work’ should be the work to fit something into your schedule.

The ‘work’ to keep at it.

But the ‘it’ shouldn’t be work.

Because learning happens when you’re relaxed. Having fun.

The other problem with this thinking is it suggests that we need to have a good memory to remember all the words.

But do you ‘remember’ all the words you use in English?

Of course not – you remember them only as you need and use them.

Trust me… you have a good memory.

You just need to let it work the way it’s designed to work.

To return to the comment from my subscribe – mate, you’re on the right path.

The best way forward is reading real original Latin unabridged, unedited, and in its original order.

But you do that by READING – understanding – NOT translating.

How?

Well, that’s why I created the Decoding Latin materials, to give you access to original Latin in its original order, in a way that means you can spend all your time reading.

And in my search for the best way to help you become fluent in reading, I’ve got a new course idea which I’ll be releasing in a few weeks.

It’s not fully worked out yet, so I can’t say any more at this stage – but let me just say that I’m super excited to share this with you.

In the meantime, if you want to read some real Latin, why not start with Cicero’s timeless dialogue, De Senectute?

Go get it here:

​https://www.amazon.com/Decoding-Latin-Ciceros-Old-Age-ebook/dp/B0CZNWHW6L/ref=sr_1_1​

Talk soon,

Alexander

P.S. Want a pdf rather than a kindle? I hear you. Hit ‘reply’ and let me know, and I’ll send you a link to purchase it from me directly.